don't confuse the narrator

room at the inn

We stopped for an aperitivo at a local bar at lunchtime and found the owner’s brother busy setting up a belén – the traditional nativity scene complete with stable, inn, and all the activity of the little town of Bethlehem.

The guy was clearly an experienced belenista.

The scene had been allocated something over two square metres of table space and although the basic layout was settled, he was still working out some structural details. The figures were sitting on another table waiting to be put in position.
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basic skills

I think I’ve said before that I am not really interested in all the ‘social media’ sites, but that I do maintain a LinkedIn profile. As well as current and past positions, there’s space to include a summary, experience, qualifications etc. – all the usual CV type information.

I recently got an email from them asking:

Do you have skills that people are looking for? Every skill you add to your profile makes you easier to find.

Which is all very well, but it goes on to suggest that I might want to add ‘writing’ as a skill on my profile:
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diplomatic immunity (the silly season II)

When I started to write the previous post, I was actually intending to talk about this ‘news’ story:

Un juez perdona al Rey Baltasar por un caramelazo en la Cabalgata de Reyes

The headline comes from Antena 3 and translates as:

Judge pardons King Balthasar for ‘caramelazo’ in the Three Kings cavalcade.

‘Caramelazo.’ What a lovely word. And what a wonderful language Spanish is that it can produce such words: Continue reading “diplomatic immunity (the silly season II)”

the silly season

Although in the UK that phrase refers to the summer, here in Spain, it seems to suit the winter, or more specifically, the period between early December and the end of the week when Epiphany falls. What with official holidays and business dinners etc., it’s amost impossible to get a full five days’ work done in any semana laborable in that period.

This year is what I think of as “un año segoviano”: next week we’ve not just got a puente – a bridge day linking a Tuesday or Thursday bank holiday to the nearest weekend – we’ve got a whole aqueduct coming up.

now I’ve seen it all

I’ve seen it all – though sadly I don’t have photos, so have had to link to other sites: I’ve finally seen all the animals and birds that appear on the information board along by the river in the village. There aren’t that many, but it’s taken me six years to get a full house:
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